Prayer for Guidance

A good friend of mine, Anne Templeton sent this prayer by Billy Graham to me a number of weeks ago. Since then Paul Harvey has died and now knows the "rest of the real Story".

THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING 

TO OUR COUNTRY! 

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your 

forgiveness and to seek your direction and 

guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to 

those who call evil good,' but that is exactly 

what we have done. We have lost our 

spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. 

We have exploited the poor and called it the 

lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it 

welfare. We have killed our unborn and 

called it choice. We have shot abortionists and 

called it justifiable. We have neglected 

to discipline our children and called it 

building self esteem. We have abused power 

and called it politics. We have coveted our 

neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. 

We have polluted the air with profanity 

and pornography and called it freedom of 

expression. We have ridiculed the 

time-honored values of our forefathers and 

called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh 

God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from 

every sin and Set us free. 

Amen!'

Commentator
Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and
wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God.'

Super Bowl Ad NBC Rejected

You didn't get to see this one.

John Piper preaching to us and to President Obama

Follow this link and listen to John Piper preach for just 3.40 seconds. Very powerful!

An Examined Look at Abortion

It was 36 years ago yesterday, January 22, that the Supreme Court came to a verdict in the case of Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion. This case is still as controversial today as it was in 1973 and continues to be in the forefront of our day.
Tim Challias  has linked  to a great resource that is free and available to you from my old seminary professor R. C. Sproul. At the Ligonier website there are now available, videos that in the past were very expensive.

I just finished listening and watching the first lecture on ABORTION.  It was a very well thought out presentation.  I think R.C. is at his best when he is in front of the camera or large audiences. 

I promise, you will learn something that is beneficial to you. Of special note, I think you will learn how better to dialogue with those with whom you disagree, simply by watching how RC approaches the subject.

Here is the link.

Since we are on the subject - or at least I am today - here is a short article that is very provocative about the four reasons you might be aborted if you are a fetal human.

The picture is of an ultrasound image from the website flicker.

36 million - is more than the 2007 official population of our most populated state -California. Check out the figures here.

Obviously I am opposed to abortion, but having been a pastor of 30 years I know many dear friends that have had abortions. For many, if it comes close to home - your examined opinion wavers. Actually, my opposition to abortion is strengthened by those that have told me of their stories. It causes so much pain and regret. I have witnessed the effects of forgiveness and grace, great grace from a loving Heavenly Father in their lives. These dear sisters have only fostered my passion that this legal option is the worst decision for young ladies, young fathers, new grandparents ... everyone. There are 36 million less people who could have walked the roads of this country.

Sanctity of Human Life

A number of years ago a judge from Alabama was very much in the news - here is an update. I love his stand on Sanctity of Life, especially when it deals with abortion. Sadly, our new president will soon approve federal funding of abortion again. When a republican comes to office they reverse this, when a democrat comes to power they reverse what the republican did ....

Some of you may be wondering what Judge Roy Moore has been doing since he was removed from the bench for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom wall. Please read the poem he wrote. It's below his picture.



The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama .. Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama ! The judge's poem sums it up quite well.

America the beautiful,

or so you used to be.

Land of the Pilgrims' pride;

I'm glad they'll never see.

Babies piled in dumpsters,

Abortion on demand,

Oh, sweet land of liberty;

your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly

poisoned by cocaine

choosing to indulge their lusts,

when God has said abstain

From sea to shining sea,

our Nation turns away

From the teaching of God's love

and a need to always pray

We've kept God in our

temples,how callous we have grown.

When earth is but His footstool,

and Heaven is His throne..

We've voted in a government

that's rotting at the core,

Appointing Godless Judges;

who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer

in a well deserved tomb,

But brave enough to kill a baby

before he leaves the womb.

You think that God's not

angry,that our land's a moral slum?

How much longer will He wait

before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God,

from Whom we cannot hide?

What then is left for us to do,

but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children,

will humbly turn and pray;

Seek His holy face

and mend our evil way:

Then God will hear from Heaven;

and forgive us of our sins,

He'll heal our sickly land

and those who live within.

But, America the Beautiful,

If you don't - then you will see,

A sad but Holy God

withdraw His hand from Thee.

~~Judge Roy Moore~~

Public Prayer at the Inauguration

I have had the opportunity to pray in public forums on many occasions. Not long ago the administration asked me to pray at my daughter's high school graduation. This was the second time, two years earlier I did the same thing for my son's graduation. I was told that there would be those in the auditorium that do not believe, so "be sensitive."

My thinking at the time and and now is that I am a Christian pastor, and they have asked a Christian to pray. So I prayed to the Loving God, and I prayed in the name of the one who died on the cross for me.

I will never be called on to pray for a president's inauguration. I am glad the Baptist pastor Rick Warren has been. He has been criticized because our new president is blatantly pro-choice. We are Biblically commanded to

 pray for our leaders - and my hope is that Rick will be like Mother Teresa when she spoke at the President's Prayer Breakfast years ago, standing right beside pro-death/abortion president Bill Clinton. She boldly called the country and him to repentance for his stand against life. Ask Mother Teresa to speak and she spoke the truth. So pray for Pastor Rick.

Here is her speech from 1994. Here specifically is what she said about abortion.

But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against

the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.

And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we

 must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.

And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.

She ended the speech with:

If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world.

From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak - the unborn child - must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!

Recently,  according to the NY Times, president elect Obama has also asked the gay Episcopalian bishop Gene Robinson to pray at the kick-off event before the actual inauguration.  I am sure it will be more "air time" than Pastor Rick's prayer. Here is what he said about his opportunity to pray.

I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation.

–Gay Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, explaining how he will approach the task of praying at one of next week’s presidential inaugural events.

In recent years, and especially during the inaugurations of President George W. Bush, ministers gave explicitly Christian prayers. Bishop Robinson said he had been rereading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”

Bishop Robinson said, “I am very clear that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

He said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language he said he learned from the 12-step program he has attended for his alcohol addiction.

And this is from The Living Church:

The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, has accepted an invitation to offer a prayer at a Jan. 18 inaugural event to welcome the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.  Bishop Robinson said he has not yet composed the prayer he will offer, but said he will not use a Bible.  “While that is a holy and sacred text to me,” he said, “it is not for many Americans. I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation. It won’t a happy clappy prayer.”

My last word - pray for our leaders to the God who will answer!